Less than a week ago the Bruins played the Leafs in Toronto in G4 and delivered one of their best playoff performances in quite some time. A comprehensive effort – solid defense, timely goals both even strength and on the PP, a 3rd period clinic that thoroughly controlled the play, gave the Leafs basically no hope of getting back into the game and just about broke their spirits. Toronto looked a rabble, reduced to squabbling on their own bench.
Fast forward a very short distance to now and we’ve seen two of the worst playoff efforts in, well, who knows how long. Zero jump, no intensity, outplayed, outworked, playing scared, stupid, disjointed hockey. How can a team turn to jello so quickly?
There are no excuses. Oh the refs were against us, the league wants a G7, the coach makes silly selections, blah, blah, blah. No, just no. Don’t give these guys an out. Against a serious team like the Panthers, or to go back in time to the SCFs against the Blues, maybe such arguments hold more weight. But this is against the milquetoast Maple Leafs, a team with its own scars and playing without their best player and with their young backup goal in net. That the Bruins can’t beat this lot is bad enough, that they lose in such miserable fashionable in 1-2 goal games where their goalie gives them every chance, while delivering new lows like 1-shot periods along the way, is pathetic.
People want to hang too much of this on Monty but I don’t really buy it. He’s made a couple of errors, sure, has some other arguable flaws, but he’s the same guy who coached this team to 3 solid victories in the first 4 games. Cleary the tactics are in place that allow this team to win games of hockey, clearly the talent is there to do so, regardless of whether this or that particular depth player is dressed. But while he can preach mental toughness and resilience in his charges, he can’t force it. So to me that’s a distraction or looking for something or someone easy to hang the blame on.
Same for Sweeney at this point. Whatever you think of his long-term record, and whatever myself and plenty of others have said about the compromised state of this transitional roster, what’s happening now isn’t about ability or the intricacies of effective roster construction. It’s between the ears of the players on the ice. And that’s straight up not good enough.
Game 7 to come. Perhaps they win, perhaps not. Even if they do, unless they suddenly deliver some kind of heroics against Florida, what’s happened in the last few days can’t be forgotten. Management need to have a good hard look at this roster, at just about every player, and determine who really has the stones for serious hockey and big-boy plays, and who doesn’t. The culture, whatever that is exactly, in that locker room is deficient. It needs serious work.